1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to alignment devices and, more particularly, to a two-part device removably mounted on a trailer tongue socket member and a vehicle hitch ball neck, respectively, and visible to a vehicle driver to allow maneuvering of the vehicle so as to align the ball neck and the socket member for engagement.
2. Description of Related Art
There have been many attempts in the past to provide an alignment device to allow a vehicle driver to align a hitch mounted ball neck on the rear of the vehicle with a trailer hitch socket member on the tongue of a trailer to allow easy engagement therebetween. Prior devices have been either costly, complex, bulky to store, or subject to damage under use.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 307,354, issued on May 1, 1990, to Mabry pictorially describes an alignment device for hitching trailers and having xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d-configured clamps at the lower end for each of a trailer hitch ball neck and a trailer tongue socket member. The Mabry device in all its embodiments provides for a telescoping upright element on each of its hitch and ball neck devices. The Mabry device is thus easily subject to damage during use and the design is inherently relatively expensive.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 342,226, issued on Dec. 14, 1993, to Rahn describes a hitch guide attachable to a trailer hitch ball neck by a xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d-shaped clamp configuration and having a ball neck mounted at the top which is visible to a vehicle operator. The Rahn device provides no upright element mountable on the trailer to allow easy alignment therewith and requires a relatively complex design having a telescoping upright, and, thus, the Rahn device is relatively costly and subject to damage.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 331,900, issued on Dec. 22, 1992, to Simmen describes a trailer hitch alignment guide having a xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d-shaped clamp engagement device which may engage the hitch assembly in two different planes. It is unclear how the embodiment of FIG. 2 is deployed, i.e., whether it attaches to the vehicle ball neck hitch, or the trailer tongue socket member. In any event, the design appears to be easily subject to damage and the pole is either telescoping or of solid construction, adding to design complexity or is bulky to store.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,481, issued on Apr. 22, 1986, to Garrison describes a magnetic unit with a vertically extending pole attachable to trailer tongue and a xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d-shaped clamped hitch ball neck engaging unit having a vertically extending pole. The Garrison device is relative complex, subject to damage, and is not readily storable; no provision is made for disassembling the poles or providing a telescoping feature therefor.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 270,906, issued on Oct. 11, 1983, to Orr describes several embodiments of a matching trailer hitch ball neck and trailer tongue socket member alignment device. Orr does not provide a xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d-shaped clamp for the socket member, and each element appears to be constructed of a single piece of wire stock, making the devices difficult to store and subject to less than vertical pole installation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,788, issued Feb. 9, 1988, to Suter describes a trailer hitch alignment apparatus having a xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d-shaped, offset upright member mounted around the vehicle hitch ball neck, and a swingable latch supporting an upright member for attachment to the trailer tongue socket member. The Suter device employs PVC plastic tubing for a substantial portion of its structure and requires the vehicle operator to mate the vehicle mounted upright into the hollow portion of a trailer tongue mounted half-round of a similar upright. Besides being a difficult maneuver, it may be difficult to remove the latch from the ball neck engaging portion of the trailer tongue when the vehicle attains proper position. The Suter device would appear to be unduly subject to damage as well as difficult to use.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,554, issued Dec. 14, 1993, to Law et al. describe a trailer hitch alignment guide having a vehicle hitch ball neck-mounted upright attached by a substantially circular collar with a set screw, and a xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d-shaped support mounted around the periphery of the end of the trailer tongue socket member. The Law et al. system is mechanically complex and would necessarily be relatively expensive.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 332,595, issued Jan. 19, 1993, to Randolph, U.S. Pat. No. 4,169,610, issued Oct. 2, 1979, to Paufler, U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,706, issued Oct. 28, 1979, to Talcott, U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,229, issued Jul. 27, 1999, to Karr, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,970,619, issued Oct. 26, 1999, to Wells, United Kingdom Patent No. 934,358, published August 1963, French Patent No. 2,387,358, published December 1978, and W.I.P.O. Patent No. WO 90/14968, published December 1990 are cited to further illustrate patents in the field of devices to align trailer hitches, but each suffers from one or more deficiencies, including complexity and attendant cost, fragility, lack of easy dismantling to enable compact storage, or the provision of only one upright member which makes alignment by the vehicle driver much more difficult.
The most recent patent by the present inventors, U.S. Pat. No. 6,517,098, issued Feb. 11, 2003, to Grasso et al. overcomes many of these problems. However, the components of the hitch alignment assembly therein described are not permanently attached when not employed on a vehicle and trailer. The user thus had the option of keeping the assembly permanently deployed, thus increasing exposure to the elements, or stowing the assembly when not in use, thus risking the loss or misplacement of a component, thus rendering the entire assembly useless.
The instant invention as described and claimed below constitutes an improvement to the hitch alignment assembly of the present inventors described in the previous paragraph.
The present invention relates generally to alignment devices to align a vehicle""s trailer hitch ball unit with a trailer tongue socket member. The present invention includes two units, each having an upright and an engaging press-on member. The trailer hitch ball neck upright unit has a xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d-shaped bottom portion for frictionally engaging the neck of the trailer hitch ball unit, and the trailer tongue socket member upright unit has a xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d-shaped bottom portion for frictionally engaging the outer housing of the trailer tongue socket member around its lower end periphery. When used in conjunction with each other, the two uprights or poles visually assist the vehicle operator in aligning the vehicle and trailer so that they may be easily coupled together for towing. The various components of each unit are flexibly and permanently connected, in a manner such that said components may be dissembled and stored compactly, while remaining together, thus avoiding loss of any individual component.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to provide a trailer hitch alignment system that is simple in design, readily deployable, and provides marking uprights for both the vehicle hitch ball unit and the trailer tongue socket member, respectively.
It is another object of the invention to provide a trailer hitch alignment system which can be easily dismantled after use to a compact configuration, while retaining all components in close proximity to each other, thus minimizing the potential for loss of any single component.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a trailer hitch alignment system which is inherently rugged in construction so as not to be susceptible to breakage.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a trailer hitch alignment system which compensates for off center mounting so as to hold the individual uprights directly above the hitch ball neck and the trailer tongue socket member so as to assure alignment when the vehicle is correctly positioned relative to the trailer by aligning the respective upright poles and allowing them to engage by physically touching.
It is an object of the invention to provide improved elements and arrangements thereof in an apparatus for the purposes described which is inexpensive, dependable and fully effective in accomplishing its intended purposes.
These and other objects of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and drawings.